Saturday February 04, 2017

Thanks in large part to the booming popularity and demands of e-sports, GDDR6 graphics memory is reportedly debuting as early as this year. Originally intended for 2018, Micron has also decided to speed things up for reasons such as shorter console hardware cycles and virtual reality. As the technology matures, we should expect GDDR6 to provide double the performance of GDDR5.

Over time, GDDR6 will transfer data at 16Gbps (bits per second), making it two times faster than GDDR5, which is used in most GPUs today. It will also be faster than GDDR5X, which had an initial target speed of 12Gbps. Users will want higher bandwidth and low-latency memory to get better graphics on their PCs and gaming consoles, Eby said. GDDR memory is targeted at mainstream computing, Eby said. However, it's not yet known when GPUs with GDDR6 will appear. Micron will make GDDR6 chips and is already making GDDR5X memory. The GDDR5X memory will continue to be used as a low-end graphics memory replacement to GDDR5.